ABSTRACT
To understand the theoretical argument, attention must first rivet on empirical dynamics first how the problem has festered, then on the big policy-making picture at the national level, and finally on how this differs from the smaller, but noisier local-level imprints. A flailing US economy could support neither regional economic integration nor immigration. During Jimmy Carter's presidency, the Special Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy (SCIRP), established by Congress in 1978, became the first to address illegal US immigration. With the mushrooming of the illegal immigration-drug trafficking-money laundering nexus, it becomes increasingly difficult to concentrate on any one specific threat, avoid an escalation in policy responses, and prevent the insulation of the larger society at both ends. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), through its 2005 Operation Community Shield, netted over 1,415 members of transnational gangs (Valentin 2006), and, since 2003, deported 52,684 criminal aliens and 40,802 non-criminal aliens.
